Abstract
MicroRNAs (miRs) may have promotive or suppressive roles in various human cancers types, but the molecular mechanisms underlying the role of miR-124 in bladder cancer (BC) progression have remained largely elusive. In the present study, it was observed that miR-124 was significantly downregulated in BC tissues compared with that in adjacent non-neoplastic tissues. Furthermore, its expression was also reduced in several human BC cell lines (T24, HT-1376 and 5637) compared with that in the normal bladder epithelial SV-HUC-1 cell line. A low expression of miR-124 in BC patients was significantly associated with advanced malignancy and a poor prognosis. Caveolin 1 (CAV1) was identified as a novel target gene of miR-124, and the expression of CAV1 was negatively regulated by miR-124 in T24 cells. Furthermore, CAV1 was identified to be significantly upregulated in BC tissues and cell lines, and a negative correlation was observed between the expression of miR-124 and CAV1 in BC tissues. Furthermore, restoration of miR-124 expression significantly inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion of T24 cells, and these effects were impaired following overexpression of CAV1. Taken together, the present results demonstrate that miR-124 has a suppressive role in the proliferation, migration and invasion of BC cells by targeting CAV1, which suggests that miR-124 is a potential therapeutic candidate for BC.